'Classic of Clarity/Purity and Stillness/Tranquility') is an anonymous Tang dynasty Taoist classic that combines philosophical themes from the Tao Te Ching with the logical presentation of Buddhist texts and a literary form reminiscent of the Heart Sutra.
Chinese Buddhism used qingjing 清淨 to translate Sanskrit parishuddhi or Pali vishuddhi "complete purification; free from defilement" (cf.
and qingjing 清淨 means "tranquil; clean and pure; (Buddhism) purified of defiling illusion, not bothered by material concerns".
The oldest extant commentary is by Du Guangting (杜光庭, 850-933 CE), a prolific editor of Daoist texts during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period.
Du says prior to being written down by Ge Xuan (164–244 CE), the Qingjing Jing was orally transmitted for generations, supposedly going back to the mythical Queen Mother of the West.
A slightly longer (and "possibly earlier"[1]) version of approximately 600 characters is the Qingjing xinjing (清靜心經 "Heart Scripture of Clarity and Stillness") or Taishang Laojun qingjing xinjing (太上老君清靜心經 "Heart Scripture of Clarity and Stillness, as Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao", CT 1169).
During the Song dynasty (960–1260 CE), the Qingjing Jing became popular within the Southern Lineage "Complete Perfection" or Quanzhen School and was interpreted in context with neidan Chinese internal alchemy.
The Qingjing Jing is described by Komjathy: An anonymous text probably dating from the 9th century, this is one of a group of Tang-dynasty (618-907) works that could be labeled "Clarity-and-Stillness" literature.
Emerging under the influence of Buddhist insight meditation (Vipassanā) and expressing a form of wisdom (zhi 智) based on the practice of observation (guan 觀), the text combines the worldview of the Tao Te Ching 道德經 (Scripture on the Tao and Inner Power) with the practice of Taoist observation and the structure (as well as some content) of the Buddhist Bo Rue Xin Jing 般若心經 (Heart Sutra of Perfect Wisdom; T. 250-57).
Kohn summarizes the Qingjing jing: The text first describes the nature of the Tao as divided into Yin and Yang, clear and turbid (qing 清 and zhuo 濁), moving and quiescent (dong 動 and jing 靜), and stresses the importance of the mind in the creation of desires and worldly entanglements.
Greed then leads to involvement, illusory imagining, and erroneous ways, which trap beings in the chain of rebirth, and they sink deeper into the quagmire of desire, causes them to fall into hell.The Qingjing jing has been translated into English by Balfour (1894), pp.
The following versions of the opening section (verses 1-8 and 9–13, reformatted for consistency) illustrate the translational range: Lâo the Master said, The Great Tâo has no bodily form, but It produced and nourishes heaven and earth.